ORDINATION OF PROVIDENCE. 257 



tions do -not always secure it; and in man the 

 avarice of possession will at times subdue his mer- 

 ciful and better feelings. Beautifully imbued with 

 celestial justice and humanity as all the ordinations 

 which the Israelites received in the wilderness were, 

 there is nothing more impressive, nothing more 

 accordant with the divinity of our nature, than 

 the particular injunctions which were given in 

 respect to showing mercy to the maternal crea- 

 ture cherishing its young, when by reason of its 

 parental regard it might be placed in danger. 

 The eggs, the offspring, were allowed to be 

 taken; but te thou shalt in anywise let the dam 

 go;" (e thou shalt not, in one day, kill both 

 an ewe and her young." The ardent affection, 

 the tenderness, with which I have filled the parent, 

 is in no way to lead to its injury or destruction : 

 and this is enforced, not by command only, not by 

 the threat of punishment and privation, but by 

 the assurance of temporal reward, by promise of 

 the greatest blessings that can be found on earth, 

 length of days and prosperity. 



The jack snipe (scolopax gallinula) is with us 

 here, as I have always known it, a transitory 

 visitor in the winter only a solitary, unsocial 

 bird an anchorite from choice. With the ex- 

 ception of our birds of prey, the manner of 

 whose existing require it, and a few others, all 

 the feathered tribe seem to have a general ten- 



s 



